College Sports Blog

With Notre Dame’s ACC deal, Big 12 must re-evaluate future plans

When the topic turned to expansion, the Big 12’s interest could be divided into two
categories: Notre Dame and everybody else.

The Irish are still special even if their football program isn’t, as evidenced by the Atlantic
Coast Conference’s decision today. Notre Dame will leave the Big East for the ACC in
their sports except football (and, well, hockey). That’s not all. Football will play a five-
game scheduling alliance, and even be a part of the ACC bowl lineup outside of the BCS.
The Big 12 was probably offering a similar package, with maybe the exception of the
bowl lineup. It’s hard to imagine schools would agree to being dropped down in the
rotation for a non-football member.

The Big 12 certainly tried. Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds spent the better part
of two years as an unofficial ambassador at large, planting seeds with Notre Dame
counterpart Jack Swarbrick.

As late as Monday, Dodds said Notre Dame would be “a positive thing” for the Big 12.
Oklahoma State president Burns Hargis called Notre Dame “a brand like no other” at the
Big 12’s spring meetings

Swarbrick acknowledged at the Big East spring meetings that new Big 12 commissioner
Bob Bowlsby was one of his best friends. The Big 12 had no shortage of connections.
The ACC offered advantages the Big 12 couldn’t match. The academic profile of some
ACC schools (academic scandals withstanding) would have been attractive to university
officials. Much of Notre Dame’s alumni base is located along the ACC footprint down
the Eastern seaboard. Big 12 schools represent regions for the most part. The ACC
could offer cities: Boston, Miami, Pittsburgh, Atlanta and even Washington, D.C. with
Maryland.

“We were pretty sure they weren’t coming our way and they sure weren’t going to stay
on the sinking ship that is the Big East,” said one Big 12 school source familiar with the
process.

“This is big for the ACC.”

Now the Big 12 faces a test. The league wasn’t going to make any move that would
possibly preclude the addition of Notre Dame. Now that possibility is almost certainly
gone.

Forget about rumored possibilities like Florida State, Clemson and Georgia Tech. Notre
Dame will help the ACC get a bump in its new TV deal, by a couple of million per team.
The ACC also took the proactive step of raising the conference’s buyout to $50 million. No one is going anywhere.

So is the Big 12 going to stay at 10 members for the foreseeable future? Probably.
The Big 12 doesn’t need the money with the new Fox and ESPN TV deals and nobody
out there now would prod the networks for more money. The Champions Bowl deal with
the SEC brought a huge amount of football prestige.

When Texas Tech became the last Big 12 school to approve the granting of rights
Tuesday, conference stability was essentially assured for 13 years.

The Big 12 could still expand and probably do it quickly. You don’t think some Big East
schools (cough, Louisville, cough) wouldn’t love a lifeline. Still, what would it bring to the
Big 12? The perception of being responding?

The league has marketed itself around the round-robin schedule in football and double
round-robin in basketball. That would go away with expansion.

The very last thing most Big 12 members want is a return to the conference football title
game, even if it meant more cash.

Imagine if 12-0 Big 12 team with a guaranteed spot in the new four-team national playoff
gets derailed by a title game loss? It’s all about access and the Big 12 right now has the
easiest playoff path.